The morning mists still clung to the mountains and the citizens of the
Mormon city appeared to be wrapped in a profound slumber when the Comet
flashed joyously along the quiet streets.
How good it seemed to settle back among his comfortable cushions and
hasten to leave this unfriendly town.
Billie at the wheel looked straight in front of her. Her heart was
unquiet and her gray eyes troubled.
"If I only had the nerve to break the news to Cousin Helen that I have
invited Evelyn to come with us," she thought. "By seven o'clock we shall
be there. Oh, dear! oh, dear! I have asked her, so I suppose I'll have
to stand by my own deeds, and I'm glad she's going to run away, but I do
wish she had eloped in another direction."
The other Motor Maids were likewise troubled in their minds, and sat in
uneasy silence. Miss Helen herself finally broke the quiet. First she
removed a black veil, a thing she rarely wore, and replaced it with her
usual blue one. Her face had resumed its normal happy expression, and
the dimple had returned to her left cheek. Salt Lake City lay behind
them.
"If I were not afraid of turning to a pillar of salt," she said, smiling
her old, natural smile, "I should like to look back just once on this
strange town that turns its visitors from its doors, for I shall never
come here again unless I'm brought in irons."
The girls smiled, somewhat relieved that their beloved chaperone had
emerged from the one fit of rage in which they had ever seen her.
"But my heart bleeds for that poor girl," she continued. "I wish I had
the power to help her. Has the child no spirit that she permits herself
to be forced into this unhappy marriage?"
"Would you really like to help Evelyn Stone if you had a chance, Cousin
Helen?" asked Billie suddenly.
"I only wish I had the chance, dear," exclaimed the other charitably.
Billie gave the merest blink of a wink to Nancy and increased the
Comet's speed to forty miles an hour.
It was long before seven o'clock, therefore, when they drew up at the
Ogden railroad station. Only a few people were about at that early hour,
but framed in the doorway of the waiting room stood a slender, girlish
figure, dressed in gray, a gray veil wrapped closely around her hat and
face.
Billie drew a deep breath.
"Cousin Helen, you've got the chance to help Evelyn Stone," she said,
getting over the confusion as quickly as possible. "I asked her the
other night to run away with us in the Comet, and she has accepted. Here
she is."
There was not time for the astonished lady to reply; for the girl in
gray, seeing the red car, rushed out, carrying her suitcase with her.
In another instant, she and her luggage were installed on the front seat
with Nancy and a new Motor Maid was added to the Comet.
"Dear Miss Campbell," she said leaning back and taking the older woman's
hand, "I can't tell you how happy I am. You are the kindest, the nicest,
the best--" she continued incoherently, her voice choking with emotion.
"If I had had anyone else to go to--but I have no one except my father's
sister, and she is not in sympathy with me. I thought of going somewhere
by train, but where? The other time when I ran away I had decided to
teach school, but it was very difficult to get a position, and when I
found you knew Daniel and Billie asked me, I couldn't resist it. You
will forgive me, won't you?"
Miss Campbell was not proof against the charms of the beautiful girl,
and melted at once into her old delightful and agreeable self.
"My dear," she said, pressing the girl's hand, "it is a pleasure to add
you to our party. I confess I'm afraid of your father, but I trust he
has no idea you have run away with us."
"No, no, he hasn't. You see I left last night before he came up to his
room. He thought I was asleep. I am certain he thinks I've gone East,
because I bought a ticket to Chicago and took the midnight train. He has
no way to know that I left the train at Ogden and he has no legal
grounds for stopping me anyway, unless he trumps up something as he did
before when I went off with the horse."
"He'd be quite capable of trumping up anything he could think of,"
thought Miss Campbell, but she said nothing and they did not allude to
the subject again that day.
Evelyn Stone, free from the thraldom of her father and her unhappy
engagement, was like a bird out of a cage. She was so happy that it was
impossible to be sad in her presence. Although indirectly she had been
the cause of their disgraceful departure from Salt Lake City, they were
obliged to admit that she was a great addition to the party in their
present strained state of nerves. When she finally unwound the long gray
veil and disclosed her lovely face glowing with color, the Motor Maids
and Miss Campbell felt that they would be willing to take almost any
risk to do her a service.
The whole thing was like a strange dream at any rate. She was a
beautiful princess flying from her old ogre of a father through country
of surpassing loveliness; for nothing can exceed the beauty of the
scenery around Ogden. However, they did not pause until they had left
the country of the ogre well behind them and had passed into the state
of Nevada. The Comet covered one hundred and five miles that day and
they slept that night at a small country hotel well on the other side of
the border.
The next morning on the way to breakfast, Evelyn bought a newspaper at
the desk.
"I knew I would find something," she said. "Listen to this: 'The wedding
of Miss Evelyn Stone, only daughter of John James Stone of Salt Lake
City, to Ebenezer Stone, bank president and owner of gold mines, has
been postponed on account of the serious illness of the young woman. The
ceremony was to have taken place to-day at twelve o'clock in the Annex
of the Tabernacle. John James Stone has been called East on important
business. His daughter is with her aunt at their country place, Granite
Hills.'"
"Thank heavens, he's going East," observed Miss Campbell, "since we are
going West."
Evelyn continued to search the paper anxiously.
"Poor Danny, I'm afraid there's no news about him," she said at last
with a sigh.
"At least he'll be glad to know that the marriage didn't take place,"
suggested Elinor.
Once more Evelyn gave her radiant smile.
"To think that if it hadn't been for all of you--"
"Chiefly Billie--" put in Nancy.
"Yes, Billie, especially, I should have been this morning the most
wretched about-to-be-bride that ever--"
She broke off suddenly and screened her face with the newspaper.
"Father and Ebenezer passed by the door just then," she whispered. "Oh,
what shall I do? I'm so afraid of bringing trouble on you, Miss
Campbell. Perhaps I'd better give up. There's no use trying--" the poor
girl began to sob miserably.
Now, there was a decidedly martial strain in the Campbell family which
had produced soldiers and fighting men in war and politics for three
generations in America and a dozen in Scotland, and two members of that
illustrious race at that moment began to hear the pibroch of the clan
summoning them to battle. Two of the Campbell children exchanged glances
of stern Campbell determination. Two descendants of Sir Roderick
Campbell, illustrious scion of a fighting race, bore suddenly a strong
resemblance to his unflinching countenance as depicted in an old
portrait in Miss Campbell's dining room.
Miss Campbell rose from the table. There was a dangerous light in her
usually gentle eyes and she held her head well up.
"Boom, boom!" sounded the call to battle in her ears. The bagpipes of
her ancestors were playing a wild strain. Down through the ages and
across thousands of miles of land and water she could hear that martial
air:
"The Campbells are coming, O-ho! O-ho!
The Campbells are coming, O-ho! O-ho!"
Then up rose the younger Campbell all booted and kilted for the fray.
"Evelyn," said the elder Campbell quietly, "are you a girl of any spirit
and courage at all?"
"I hope so," exclaimed the poor girl, shrinking into her chair
miserably.
But we must not blame her for her lack of courage. Remember, that she
had been brought up by a man who was granite straight through to the
heart.
"Well, now is the time to show it then, my child. We shall fight for
you, the girls and I, and we will stand by you, but you must make some
effort yourself. You cannot be made to marry if you don't want to, and
there is no law that I know of that would require you to return against
your will to your father. You are not a child."
Fortunately that morning the dining room was quite empty, and only a
poor waitress saw the two armies lined up for battle. The opposing
forces now entered. John James Stone and his relative, Ebenezer, marched
quietly into the field, looking very formidable, it must be owned, with
their white, expressionless faces and black clothes. General Helen
Eustace Campbell and Captain Billie lead the other army, which marched
gallantly out to meet them. The battle was a brief one.
"Evelyn, disobedient and wicked girl, how dare you mortify me as you
have done?" began John James in a voice of thunder.
Evelyn shook with fear.
"And how dare you," exclaimed the intrepid Helen, "interrupt me and my
guests at breakfast? This young woman, twenty years of age, has placed
herself in my care. She declines to marry your relative and there is no
law in this country by which you can force her to do so. She also
declines your support and protection and there is no law which will
force her to accept it if she does not wish. She is not a child."
"Madam, do you know who I am that you dare to interfere with me and my
affairs?" cried the infuriated Mormon.
"I do," exclaimed Miss Campbell in a high, clear voice, folding her
arms. "I know that you are a scoundrel and that you are willing to cheat
and lie in order to obtain your ends. I am not afraid of you and I do
not consider you of the least importance. Your daughter is at this
moment my guest, and I refuse to have her annoyed."
The tall man and the little woman faced each other while the poor,
craven bridegroom that was to have been, shrank back in amazement.
Then the most remarkable transformation took place on the face of
Goliath, John James. He dropped his stone mask with a suddenness so
abrupt that they almost imagined they heard it break as it fell to the
floor. His brow cleared and he flashed a smile that had a faint
glimmering of Evelyn's in the curve of the lips.
"Madam," he said, holding out his hand, "let us be friends. I admit that
I am beaten and that I may say that I am not ashamed to be conquered by
a woman of such spirit and courage. I only wish my daughter had as
much."
Miss Helen put her small hand into his. She was too amazed for the
moment to realize what she was doing.
"Come, Ebenezer."
The great man made a low, ceremonious bow and departed from the room.
Then, what did General Helen Eustace Campbell do but have a genuine case
of hysterics and require to be supported to her apartment by five highly
excited young women!